The Weight of Water

Rating:
Summary: Bigelow: Artistic, Literary & Haunting
Review: "The Weight of Water" is the most artistic and literary of Bigelow's film, the furthest from the action-adventure genre. Although it has thrilling moments of disaster at sea, it is primarily a character study. There are 4 people aboard a yacht, the most pivotal being Sean Penn, playing a writer whose writing days are mainly in the past because they were all based on an early tragedy involving the loss of the love of his life. He's married to someone else now but has serious relationship problems which are exacerbated by having another woman on board who has captured his sexual interest (Elizabeth Hurley). Where this film really gets interesting though is unveiling a whole other story of a woman who used to live on an island in these waters over a century ago who may, or may not, have murdered two other women. Sarah Polley does a wonderful job playing her. The underwater sequences during the storm at sea involving this woman's ghost and our present day people are the most artistic and stunning of Bigelow's career. I saw this as a rental and immediately wished I had bought it instead. This is Bigelow at her best as a filmmaker, artist and storyteller all rolled into one (based on the source Anita Shreve novel). Writer-director Kathryn Bigelow was a very talented painter before she went to film school to become a movie director. It shows in her work which is very artistic for someone primarily known to the action-adventure genre of filmmaking. She is a breath of fresh air in this genre, investing it with literate scripts and haunting imagery. Her most frequent producer is James Cameron (the action wonder king, "Titanic," "Terminator"), who is also her ex-husband. You can see his influence on her work as well.

Rating:
Summary: Half of a Gem Found in Heavy Water
Review: Katherine Bigelow's "The Weight of Water," is a compelling story unraveled through seemingly parallel tales, one in the present, the other set in 1873 on an off-shore New England Island. The 1873 tale is intriguing and has all the elements of a fine murder-mystery. The thing that stops this film from raising above the merely good and talented fray is that the two tales are unbalanced. Though the modern day tale of Sean Pean as a writer, his wife as a photojournalist, Josh Lucas as Penn's brother, and a deliciously played coy Elizabeth Hurley as Lucas' girlfriend and a literary groupie to Penn makes for complicated interactions played interestingly by a fine cast, it simply does not live up to the history behind the mystery.

The two tales are attempted to be interwoven but aren't connected skillfully like similar cinematic anachronistic parallel tales like "The Hours." Don't miss this as a rental; you will be captivated, intrigued, frightened, but its not one to own unless you are a big fan of Penn or Hurley. The water indeed gets weighty but it's only half deep.
--MMW

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: One of the worst movies ever. Trust me, it was so boring that I don't even remember what was it all about. What more can I say?
Underestimate this review and watch this movie - then you'll get to know what I was talking about.

Rating:
Summary: Hurley - just eye-candy. Penn & Polley make the picture B-/B
Review: Stark and uncompromising, this film manages to balance simplistic, but edgy, psychodrama and historical mystery with honest character study.

It's refreshing to see Elizabeth Hurley (Adaline) star in an intelligent psychological drama. Not since her breakthrough performances in KILL CRUISE and PERMANENT MIDNIGHT has the actress been allowed to stretch much farther than glorified eye-candy (not that I'm complaining about that ;) Unfortunately, she's not much more in this film. The real stars are Sean Penn as Thomas, an alcoholic and melancholic poet who hasn't picked up pen in years, and Sarah Polley as a Norweigian immigrant (Maren) who struggles with a cold marriage, a desperate secret and a building internal rage that threatens her sanity make this film a winner.

Catherine McCormack is excellent as well in the role of Thomas' wife Jean, a photojournalist researching an old murder case from 1873 (the film is based on Kathryn Bigelow's book and the murder on the Island of Shoals actually happened). She happens upon new evidence that calls into question the official explanation of the crime and reveals the powerful fury of violent emotions that sometimes overtake good people and move them to acts of horror. In the midst of her discovery, she must confront her own passion, disappointment, jealousy and frustration.

Both stories are tightly woven through a complex parallel narrative. The cinematography is at times artistic and elegant and at others pale and unrefined. The ending is a bit forced and the storm scene seems contrived, but if the viewer can excuse the final 13 minutes of the film, the initial 100 feature performances that border on virtual genius.

The only lead that fails as a character lacking any depth whatsoever is Rich (played by Josh Lucas), Thomas' brother and Adaline's beau. There is more personality in a wooden pencil. Further, the viewer waits for the ... tension between both Penn and Hurley's characters, and likewise Lucas' and McCormack's, to materialize beyond innuendo, but the film falls short of providing such powerful impetus for a rage that is, one supposes, meant to be mirrored by Nature's furious rampage near the end of the tale.

Overall the film is thought-provoking and holds the viewer's interest, but it lacks in depth beyond the obvious and suffers from predictable cliche' development throughout. This is forgivable, though. The tightly filmed narrative paces along rapidly and the interior struggles that the characters endure expose the reality of human frailty. One fairly touching scene occurs between Polley's character and that of Anethe (played by Vinessa Shaw). Therefore, it must be said that throughout, this is Polley's film.

I rate it four/five and suggest KILL CRUISE (or DER SKIPPER) (starring Hurley, Patsi Kensit and Jürgen Prochnow) as a decent companion picture. Fans of Polley's work should also see NO SUCH THING. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: A fine play within a play
Review: THE WEIGHT OF WATER is a fine story that becomes one of the better examples of double stories played in flashback released in recent years. Kathryn Bigelow was managed to direct an excellent cast in a well written screenplay based on a novel by Anita Shreve - an exploration by a contemporary set of couples on a weekend excursion to re-address an actual murder of two women that took place on the lonley Isle of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire in 1873. The impetus of the investigation is journalist/photographer Catherine McCormack with alcoholic poet husband Sean Penn, Penn's worldy brother Josh Lucas and his current paramour Elizabeth Hurley. This quartet of strangely interconnected lives is slowly exposed to the facts of the century old murders through the voice of one of the three women in the fated house who survived. The island murder site has one lonely house with a history of Norwegian immigrants beset with marital discord, incest, and isolation. As the real version of the murders unfolds the contemporary couples' similar quirks are revelded. To say more would deprive the viewer of the keen suspense this spellbinding story holds. Suffice it to say that with a cast of contemporaries like Catherine McCormack, Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley and Josh Lucas and the parallel cast of islanders that includes a wonderful Sarah Polley, Vinessa Shaw and Katrin Cartlidge the suspense and intensity is matched only by the main character of the film - the mighty Atlantic ocean. Beautifully photographed, the film's only real problem is that the voices are often buried by a lushly orchestrated and sung film score; the music is beautiful but overpowers the actors and pacing of the story. But that said, THE WEIGHT OF WATER is a fine movie that deserves another go - and that can now happily happen in your home on a very well made DVD.

Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK IS BETTER...
Review: This is an adaptation of the exceptionally well-written book of the same name by Anita Shreve. The film, as does the book, tells two stories, each with its own voice, demanding to be heard. The stories run parallel to each other, and the film cuts back and forth between each one, a difficult thing to do successfully. The director, Karen Bigelow, handles the flashbacks with competent ease. One story takes place in the present, and the other takes place over a century ago. The film is not a faithful adaptation of the book, and the revisions somewhat undercut the tension in the present day story, weakening that portion of the film. Moreover, while the casting for the period segment is perfect, the casting of the present day story leaves much to be desired.

The film tells the present day story of Jean (Catherine McCormack), a news photographer who sets out on a large sailboat to a remote island off the coast of New Hampshire, accompanied by her Pulitzer prize winning writer/husband, Thomas (Sean Pen), her brother-in-law, Rich (Josh Lucas), and his sexy girl friend of several months, Adaline (Elizabeth Hurley). It turns out that Thomas and Adeline already knew each other, as Thomas had introduced her to his brother, a fact of which Jean had been previously unaware. It appears that relations may be strained on this voyage, as Adeline flirts outrageously with Thomas. Jean's present is haunted by passion, jealousy, and betrayal. She feels great angst, as she senses the attraction that seems to exist between her husband and Adeline.

The purpose of the visit to the island is to view the scene of a nineteenth century double murder that saw two Norwegian, immigrant women hacked to death, which murders were much ballyhooed at the time as the crime of the century. A third woman, Maren Hontvedt (Sara Polley), survived the carnage that took the lives of her sister and sister-in-law and lived to tell the tale. It seems that a former boarder returned to their homestead, while the husbands of two of the women were away, and attacked them. He was caught, charged, tried, convicted and, proclaiming his innocence to the end, executed for his crimes.

Jean later discovers an uncatalogued statement made by the lone surviving eyewitness, Maren Hontvedt, which recounts Maren's life and the events that led up to the carnage. It reveals what actually happened. The period segment reveals that while Maren's marriage is not a love match, she is, nonetheless, doing everything she can to make a home. When her relatives arrive from Norway, they revive past issues best left dormant. Jean begins to identify with Maren's struggles with love and marriage. Ultimately, It is through Maren's compelling story that Jean finds herself able to come to term with her own personal tragedy.

Alternating between Jean's unraveling present and the secrets of the past, the film provides an absorbing and suspenseful narrative, as it tries to tell the two stories. It is in the period piece that the film succeeds, however, painting a wonderful picture of what Maren's life was like over a century a go on that isolated island. Sarah Polley is terrific as the tragic Maren and the cinematography is magnificent. It is the period story, painting the picture of nineteenth century immigrant life, that carries the film, as it is that story that is the most compelling. The two juxtaposed dramas each come together, however, in a primal and tragic climax.

The present day story, unfortunately sinks under its own weight. Sean Penn in the role of Thomas gives a performance that makes the viewer want to slap him, so obnoxious and pretentious does he come across. He is all but laughable and so unattractive as to make one wonder what the gorgeous Adeline could ever see in him. Elizabeth Hurley is well cast as the slyly flirtatious Adeline. Josh Lucas is likable as Rich, Jean's good looking brother-in-law. Unfortunately, the anorexic looking Catherine McCormack is also not particularly likable as Jean. One begins to think that she and Thomas deserve each other. Moreover, the viewer cares little about what happens to either one of them, so unlikable are they.

The present day story deserves about two stars, while the period segment deserves at least a four, so I am rating this film with three stars. Read the book; then, watch the movie.